Pride

It can be argued - especially in this day of digital filmmaking and green-screen effects - that shooting on location, even when that location is integral to the story, is no longer a necessity. Look at 300 (and a kazillion people have): Behold ancient Greece in all its glory, and not a Spartan grunt nor Persian warmonger strayed anywhere beyond the confines of a Montreal soundstage. But it also can be argued that a sense of place adds authenticity to a tale, a richness of detail.

A building sitting smack in the middle of a city, housing its government and courts, should be an object of civic pride. But City Hall is a mess. Sure, more custodians and street cleaners are now on the job; some floors shine, some trash is neatly bagged. And there are oases of relative opulence - mostly near the mayor's office and City Council chambers. That doesn't change the general ambience, however. Any flat surface can be a dumping ground. Stairwells are layered in thick, dark dust.

Chillin' Wit' is a regular feature of the Daily News spotlighting a name in the news away from the job. A LITTLE GIRL — her name is Tyler Foster — is sitting upon some impressive shoulders, high in the air on a Sunday afternoon before her cousin's basketball game. "I'll look for a basketball for you," Matthew Johnson says, his little cousin's pigtails bouncing. Johnson, 23, is dedicated to kids, and not just the ones to whom he's related. He's the head coach of the Strawberry Mansion varsity boys' basketball team and a mentor with Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color.

Penn State was only half-bad in last Saturday's 38-14 defeat at Ohio State. The Nittany Lions led, 14-3, at intermission before unraveling and giving up 35 unanswered points to the Buckeyes. As unsightly as the third and fourth quarters were, coach Joe Paterno's team took less of a drubbing than did Indiana, which endured an 83-20 beatdown by Wisconsin. The Hoosiers trailed 38-10 at halftime and 59-13 after three quarters as the sixth-ranked Badgers, clearly intent on impressing poll voters and strengthening their case for their first Rose Bowl appearance since 2000, flogged the only Big Ten Conference team that has yet to win a league game.

The Plymouth Meeting Mall was filled with varied symbols of pride and heritage Sunday as the African American Festival set up shop there.

IGOT on the subway and was feeling fine until I opened the Daily News. When I turned to Page 5, I was treated to a generous helping of gay rights. Not a day goes by when I gotta see at least one article of how proud they are and which state decided to let them get married. Put your pride where the sun don't shine and not in my face! Gregory Falcone, Philadelphia

Thank you for the very nice picture and article about the Vaux Junior High School Viewpoint Team (Feb. 5). It was such a delight to see these fine- looking boys in their school award jackets. How sad that peer pressure refers to them as "wimps" and "nerds" and that someone can describe the students' environment as one in which "your worth is determined almost by how much trouble you can get into. " So I say to the Vaux Viewpoint Team: Congratulations, keep on in the direction you are heading and ignore the so-called "friends" of your peer pressure.

I HAVE RARELY been so proud to be a Pennsylvanian as I was throughout the ordeal of the nine trapped miners in Somerset. Gov. Schweiker selflessly provided leadership and strength for all who prayed for a successful resolution to this crisis. He was a profile in courage, poise, grace, optimism, and valor, going far beyond the call of duty. Gov. Schweiker did not have to remain at the scene from the outset of this disaster, nor did he have to go without sleep for days, but there he was, any time we turned on any television station, providing countless briefings to millions watching throughout the world, instilling confidence and maintaining hope.

Seventy children from Philadelphia's Asian communities graduated last night from the eighth annual Asian Americans United Summer Program. Kids' Night, as it's called - an evening of songs, dances and a play - is being spread over two nights this year. Last night's ceremony was held at the Chinese Christian Church, 225 N. 10th St., and tonight's will be at the Philadelphia Cambodian Mennonite Church, 711-15 Snyder Ave. The ceremonies mark the end of AAU's Summer Program, during which 16 high- school-age youths work as teachers and mentors for the children.

Chillin' Wit' is a regular feature of the Daily News spotlighting a name in the news away from the job. A LITTLE GIRL — her name is Tyler Foster — is sitting upon some impressive shoulders, high in the air on a Sunday afternoon before her cousin's basketball game. "I'll look for a basketball for you," Matthew Johnson says, his little cousin's pigtails bouncing. Johnson, 23, is dedicated to kids, and not just the ones to whom he's related. He's the head coach of the Strawberry Mansion varsity boys' basketball team and a mentor with Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color.

CAIRO - Men in pressed suits and polished shoes, some carrying holy books and sporting beards, rushed past cement barricades and hurried beneath a silver dome to begin setting laws for a nation that for generations had oppressed and imprisoned many of those now rising to power. Egypt's new parliament held its inaugural session Monday, and a sense of wonder mixed with the gravity of a country still under military rule and beset by economic turmoil. Led by the Muslim Brotherhood, which until now was banned from running for office, the chamber echoed with the voices of a burgeoning political era that is replacing the specter of Hosni Mubarak's corrupt secular government.

I'll admit that I went to Wednesday's performance of Of Mythic Proportions hoping Kensington teenagers would explain the inexplicable - why it's easier to get a gun in their neighborhood than a job, why seven of their own squeezed into a Toyota Corolla at 10:30 on a recent school night eager to fight, why only four came home alive. The timing of the show is eerie, since cast members knew the victims. But the Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School students who turn harrowing reality into art aren't criminologists or social scientists.

BISHOP McDEVITT in Harrisburg, which plays Archbishop Wood for the Class AAA state championship tomorrow night at HersheyPark Stadium, has a few notable connections to Philadelphia football. The school has produced former Eagles running back Ricky Watters and current Birds star LeSean McCoy. McCoy's pride has come through this week on Twitter as he talked about his alma mater. "The best football program n PA that produce college n pro athletes Bishop MCDEVITT ... State champs next week," McCoy tweeted.

RE: "Eye of the needles," (Oct. 26): When I was a teenager, I used to go to the McPherson Square Library and we would sit outside on the grass to read the books we checked out. We had no fear of coming into contact with any needles or drug paraphernalia at that time. We spend a lot of time in that neighborhood, but to see it now it is unbelievable to see how bad it has deteriorated. When I drive up Kensington Avenue from Front Street to Castor Avenue. I now feel like the Indian in the commerical for keeping the blight under control.

For the first time in four years, a Penn football game won't carry much weight in terms of how the season will unfold. Last Saturday's loss at Harvard dashed the Quakers' hopes to capture their third straight Ivy League title. Thus, Saturday's home matinee with Cornell has become just another game. But on Wednesday night, as darkness and a heavy drizzle engulfed Franklin Field, head coach Al Bagnoli wasn't ready to let his team cruise into the season finale. The 20-year head coach ended his practice by having a handful of players run wind sprints for breaking a "minor team rule.

Anyone who's caught a ride with me knows the depth of my passion for Penn State. My floor mats bear the Nittany Lion symbol. At home, Penn State curtains decorate the windows of the Penn State/Yankees exercise room. (My husband's a New Yorker and, hey, the team colors are the same.) At The Inquirer, my cubicle is awash with nods to my alma mater (Class of '82). There's a Penn State clock, water bottle, and travel mug. A helmet fashioned in the Nittany Lion's likeness. A Danbury Mint replica of Beaver Stadium on game day. On occasion, the lifesize cutout of JoePa has made an appearance - mainly to taunt the Buckeyes fan who occupies the next cubicle over.

THOMAS M. Hageman's formal education ended after Roman Catholic High School, but he went on to become a leader in the world of computers and oversaw installation of the Aegis Combat System in Japanese ships in the 1990s. Tom was also an electronics wizard who once built his own television set. But his biggest achievement, as far as he was concerned, was his family, to which he devoted his energies, hard work and dedication in a lifetime of love and concern. Tom Hageman, who retired in 1997 as a supervisory computer technician for the Lockheed Martin Corp., was a dedicated traveler, an Air Force veteran of the Korean War and a runner who competed in a number of races.

In 1819, Charles Willson Peale headed down to Washington to paint portraits of President James Monroe, Henry Clay, and other dignitaries for exhibition in the famed Peale museum located in Independence Hall. But there was another sitter the painter wanted to snare on his trip. "I heard of a Negro who is living in Georgetown said to be 140 years of age," Peale wrote in his diary. "He is comfortable in his Situation having Bank stock and lives in his own house. " The man was Yarrow Mamout, a free African, a Muslim who indeed held bank stock, purchased with great effort to secure a comfortable old age - after a life of abduction and bondage.

BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbian authorities have banned a gay-pride march and an antigay protest planned in the nation's capital this weekend to avoid violence. When two similar events occurred side by side in Serbia's capital last year, about 100 people were injured, cars were burned, and shops were looted in clashes between police and the antigay, far-right extremists. So the gay-pride march and the antigay protest planned in Belgrade on Sunday have been banned "to avoid bloodshed," Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said Friday.